Easily transportable devices with wireless telecommunications capabilities, such as mobile telephones, personal digital assistants, handheld computers, and similar devices, will be referred to herein as wireless devices. The term “wireless device” may refer to a device and its associated Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) that includes a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) application, a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) application, or a Removable User Identity Module (R-UIM) application or may refer to the device itself without such a card. A wireless device might communicate with a second wireless device, some other element in a telecommunications network, an automated computing device such as a server computer, or some other device, any of which can be referred to as a correspondent node.
A communications connection between a wireless device and a correspondent node might promote a voice call, a file transfer, or some other type of data exchange, any of which can be referred to as a call or a session. A wireless device can be considered to be in an active state when a data exchange is in progress on the wireless device. A wireless device can be considered to be in an idle state when the wireless device is turned on but is not actively engaged in a data exchange. Alternatively, the term “call” might refer only to an active data exchange and the term “session” might apply to the state of a wireless device that is either involved an active data exchange or is idle but is powered on and capable of engaging in a data exchange.
As technology has evolved, more advanced equipment has been introduced that can provide services that were not possible previously. This advanced equipment might include, for example, an enhanced node B (ENB) rather than a base station or other systems and devices that are more highly evolved than the equivalent equipment in a traditional wireless telecommunications system. Such advanced or next generation equipment may be referred to herein as long-term evolution (LTE) equipment.
In traditional wireless telecommunications systems, transmission equipment in a base station transmits signals throughout a geographical region known as a cell. For LTE equipment, the region in which a wireless device can gain access to a telecommunications network might be referred to by a different name, such as a hot spot. As used herein, the term “cell” will be used to refer to any region in which a wireless device can gain access to a telecommunications network, regardless of whether the wireless device is a traditional cellular device or an LTE device.